Editor’s Note: Featuring the good, the dangerous and the ugly, ‘Look of the Week’ is a common sequence devoted to unpacking the most talked about outfit of the final seven days.
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First Rihanna’s bathrobe, now Gigi Hadid’s DHL tape dress — plainly luxurious trend is trying proper beneath our noses (or at the least inside our homes) for inspiration.
On Friday, Hadid walked in the Vetements present throughout Paris Fashion Week wrapped tightly in a roll of yellow and crimson DHL-branded packing tape. The adhesive device was styled into a strapless mini dress, whereas two heeled pumps have been wrapped in the identical tape to match. “She delivered,” learn one social media comment. “FedEx has 24 hours to respond,” added another.
While it might be certainly one of the most cost-effective items we’ve seen on a excessive trend runway this season, the concept of utilizing tape as a textile isn’t new. In 2017, Raf Simmons cinched the waists of fashions dressed in wool overcoats with a customized printed tape that learn, “Walk with Me” and “RSYP Youth Project.” That identical yr Jeremy Scott, who was impressed by rubbish for his Moschino assortment, introduced robes with taped straps and detailing. In 2022, Kim Kardashian made headlines when she arrived at the Balenciaga present in Paris — nearly each sq. inch of her coated in Balenciaga-branded yellow and black police tape. According to New York Times chief trend critic Vanessa Friedman, the outfit made a “sticky tape-y sound” as Kardashian walked.
Duct tape was initially created throughout World War II. It was invented by Vesta Stoudt, an American mom and munitions manufacturing unit employee, who noticed a higher approach to package deal troopers’ ammunition bins, nevertheless it rapidly grew to become a fix-all resolution for all the pieces from cut up boots to fender’s on jeeps to make-shift bandages. By the 2010s, the adhesive had develop into trendy in addition to purposeful: Now rolls have been emblazoned with photos of Hello Kitty, made to glow in the darkish or scented. Constructing a duct tape dress was a favourite problem on actuality trend competitors Project Runway, whereas in 2010, for the award-winning “Telephone” music video that includes Beyoncé, Lady Gaga writhed round a jail cell with little greater than a few yards of yellow warning tape in the manner of an outfit.
In 2011, Iowa State University staged its first annual duct tape trend present — coated by the New York Times — solely allowing designs that have been made fully from the ironmongery shop staple. The event was canceled in 2015 due to “minimal interest,” however passionate tape designers needn’t really feel unstuck. With manufacturers like Vetements and Balenciaga flying the flag for the unconventional materials as soon as extra, maybe the roll hasn’t run out simply but.